Two men who went missing on Easter Sunday have been found dead, and their bodies recovered, according to Dallas police.
The incident occurred in the 1600 block of California Crossing Road on the Elm Fork of the Trinity River.
Police officers and members of Dallas Fire-Rescue (DFR) responded to a 911 call on April 9 at about 3:30 p.m. regarding two men who had been swept away in the river.
Michael Dennis, a spokesman for the Dallas Police Department, told The Dallas Express that emergency crews used sonar and searched from the air to try to find the two missing men on April 11.
“Dallas Police Dive Team and DFR Swiftwater returned to the scene and launched a boat using sonar and down imaging to search beneath the surface of the water for the men but found nothing in the area. In addition, a search was done in the spillway in the heaviest current location, and the shoreline was also searched,” said Dennis.
On April 12, a helicopter and drones were used in another search attempt.
“Air 1 and Unmanned Aerial Systems were used to search from above in the area [where] the men went underwater. Both were utilized daily,” Dennis told The Dallas Express.
It was not until April 13, at about 3:30 p.m., that Dallas police located one of the men and pulled his body from the Trinity River.
“The victim was located approximately 100 yards south of the spillway,” said Dennis.
The following day, April 14, just before 10 p.m., the body of the second man was found and recovered from the Trinity River.
“The man was recovered approximately a quarter mile from the spillway. The Medical Examiner has positively identified the victim as the second missing man,” Dennis explained.
In a press conference Saturday afternoon, Dallas Police Department Executive Assistant Chief Albert Martinez spoke about the recovery efforts.
“It’s been a heavy week, but it’s also now a day of relief that these two young men were found and recovered,” said Martinez, per WFAA. “I know the relatives were out here every night as well as our officers.”
A local advocate, Carlos Quintanilla, told WFAA that one man slipped into the river, and the other went in after him.
“They were here for a picnic,” said Quintanilla. “One of the individuals went to try to clean a grill. He slipped into the water, and the second individual attempted to rescue him.”
The two men have been identified as 21-year-old Juan Ruben Chel Botzoc and 18-year-old Edyn Oswaldo Yat Choc. Both men were immigrants from Guatemala.
